Temporary shaping of hair styles for a longer period of time up to several days usually requires the use of active setting agents. Therefore, hair treatment agents that serve to temporarily impart a shape to hair play an important role. Corresponding agents for temporary shaping usually contain synthetic polymers and/or waxes as the active setting agent. Agents to support the temporary shaping of keratin-containing fibers may be fabricated as hair spray, hair wax, hair gel or hair mousse, for example.
The most important properties of an agent for temporary shaping of hair, hereinafter also referred to as styling agents, consists of imparting the strongest possible hold to the treated fibers in the newly modeled shape—i.e., a shape imposed on the hair. We also speak of a strong hair style hold or a high degree of hold of the styling agent. The hair style hold is determined essentially by the type and amount of active setting agents used, but there may also be an influence of the additional ingredients of the styling agent.
In addition to a high degree of hold, styling agents must meet a number of other requirements. These can be divided roughly into properties involving the hair, properties involving the respective formulation, e.g., properties of sprayed aerosols and properties pertaining to the handling of the styling agent, wherein the properties involving the hair are particularly important. Moisture resistance, low tackiness (tack) and a balanced conditioning effect can be mentioned in particular. In addition a styling agent should be as uniformly usable as possible for all types of hair and should be mild on both hair and skin.
To do justice to the different requirements, a number of synthetic polymers that are used in styling agents have already been developed. These polymers can be divided into cationic, anionic nonionic and amphoteric setting polymers.
European Patents EP 1719499 B1, EP 1719500 B1 and EP 1726331 B1 describe acrylate resins bearing the INCI designations acrylates/hydroxy ester acrylates copolymer and their use in styling agents. International patent application WO 2012/054278 A2 also mentions acrylates/hydroxy ester acrylates copolymers as hair setting polymers and uses Acudyne® 1000 (The Dow Chemical Company) in hair mousses.
Hair sprays based on copolymers of N-tert-butylacrylamide, acrylic acid and ethyl acrylate are described in German Patent Application DE 10 2004 040 172 A1, among others.
Not all polymers and not all polymer blends are fundamentally suitable for production of hair styling agents. This is true in particular of hair sprays in which the viscosity, for example, and thus also the spray behavior are influenced by the polymer and/or the amount of polymer used.
Although suitable polymers and polymer combinations for use in the field of temporary hair styling were developed a long time ago, the results achieved so far still leave room for improvement, in particular with regard to stability in storage, applicability and the degree of hold of these agents. In particular, the styling agents currently available can still be improved to the extent that a good combination of degree of hold and long-term hold (high humidity curl retention) is not always adequately insured.